Covid-19 / SARS-CoV-2 New Antibody Research -Good News!
Protective antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 viruses, including Covid-19, are a major shield against reinfection or hopefully new virus variants (mutations). Major questions regarding antibodies created by the body of a person having had Covid-19 include, how long do produced antibodies against the Covid-19 and SARS-CoV-2 after virus recovery remain in the body to help protect against reinfection of Covid-19 or a variant? Does the body provide extended antibody protection after the initial immune cells involved in producing the antibodies die?
Now current research reported in Nature indicates months after recovery from mild COVID-19, when antibody levels in the blood have declined, immune cells in bone marrow remain ready to pump out new antibodies against the coronavirus.
When a SARS-CoV-2 virus including Covid-19 initiates, the following according to the reported research occurs , “…short-lived immune cells are generated quickly to secrete an early wave of protective antibodies. As the immune cells die out, antibody levels decline. But a pool of these immune cells, called long-lived plasma cells, is held in reserve after infection.
Most of them [long-lived plasma cells] migrate to the bone marrow, explained coauthor Ali Ellebedy of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. His team obtained bone marrow samples from 19 patients seven months after the onset of mild COVID-19. Fifteen had long-lived plasma cells secreting antibodies against the coronavirus. Five of the 15 had second bone marrow biopsies 11 months after symptom onset and all still had long-lived plasma cells secreting antibodies against SARS-CoV-2.
In an additional statement reported in Nature magazine, Ellebedy noted that these cells are “just sitting in the bone marrow and secreting antibodies. They have been doing that ever since the infection resolved, and they will continue doing that indefinitely… These cells will live and produce antibodies for the rest of people’s lives.”
Check with the CDC at https://www.cdc.gov and your state government websites for updated masking, distancing and other information involving Covid-19. Portions of this blog post were also published in Newsmax: Immune System Remembers Mild COVID-19 | Newsmax.com